


How We Remember

by LeoOtherLands



Category: Naruto
Genre: Comfort No Hurt, Doodles, Hatake Kakashi In Love, M/M, Oh my gods look at that!, Short & Sweet, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, Touching, adoration
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-25
Updated: 2020-10-25
Packaged: 2021-03-09 05:08:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 634
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27198272
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LeoOtherLands/pseuds/LeoOtherLands
Summary: Kakashi Hatake just wants to watch Iruka Umino sleep. Just that... because moments like that are the only things worth remembering.
Relationships: Hatake Kakashi/Umino Iruka
Comments: 20
Kudos: 49





	How We Remember

Iruka Umino was in bed with me, his face scrunched up in an all unmeaning, unknowing, and extremely adorable pout that had me eye-smiling at him and brushing some hair out of his face. Making him softly protest and scrunch his face further into that soft cast. He was asleep in the too-early morning, and I loved watching him like this. All a mess and very childishly beautiful, all trace of the in-control _shinobi_ banished from him by slumber. Here was just Iruka Umino, just a man without care.

Except for the man beside him who kept touching him here and there to make sure he was real. Hence the pout, unconscious or not.

Another light, barely there brush of a finger down the arm he held cocked beneath his chin, eliciting another low groan-grumble-mumble of protest, and I just lay there looking at him. Basking in the fact I had this warm person called Iruka Umino in my bed.

I’d asked him over the night before and we’d spent most of the night awake in my bed. Not having sex. I’d asked him to talk to me about whatever came to his mind and he had with a frown that had let up after a while. After he’d gotten lost in some tale of the Academy and his face had taken on a happy glow and his smile had lit his eyes.

That smile had been the best of it, just what I’d wanted and what I’d hoped for all the day, while I ran a mission and daydreamed about a golden man teaching _genin_ at the Academy.

That smile, recorded unobtrusively with my _sharingan_ on other occasions, had kept me alive on more missions than I could count. And deep in my heart, I knew it would again, and barring that, if I couldn’t stay alive, I’d die with that smile running behind my eyes. The last thing I would see as I slipped off to whatever came after.

Carefully, slowly, I lifted a hand and brushed Iruka’s loose, over-long hair off his forehead again. Massaged the pad of a thumb along the soft flesh around his eye. The other man shifted, previous pout changing to confused-pleased half awareness. Iruka Umino almost awake, but not quite. I took my hand away quickly and he dropped off again to full sleep, breathing evening out and features relaxing altogether.

It’d been that way the night before, as well. Iruka had slowly but surely gotten tired, drifted off. While I remained awake and alert, the man I’d gotten into my bed slept away the few remaining hours of the dark before dawn.

Now, with the light barely creeping through the windows, I was still awake, still watching him, _sharingan_ slowly revolving, recording the simple way he was breathing, his subtle movements. The way he looked so at easy and at peace in sleep. Nothing could touch this man. Or, so it seemed.

And it was like this I chose to remember. This scene, this moment, this indelible instant. Iruka Umino, alive and vivid and real and here with me in my bed, against all odds and beyond anything I deserved. There were many ways I could remember, many pains and regrets I could spend my days fixated on. But none of them were worth it. This… this was all that had true value and it was this I would hold in memory.

Shutting my _sharingan_ , weary and at last on the last threads of my _chakra_ , I sighed and reached for him. Not brushing or caressing this time, I pulled him against me, tucked my face into his neck, and let myself go. Allowed exhausted sleep to claim me at last, as Iruka tightened his arms around me and murmured drowsy things into my hair.

**Author's Note:**

> This salty ball of angst and glitter is an original fiction author and fan fiction writer, who literally lives for comments and reader interaction. Even if this is nothing but inarticulate vowel screams, lol. He exist on a flotilla of social media, separated into a wide array writery things.
> 
> If you are crazy enough to want to see what I'm writing on any given day, and maybe try tempting me into writing something specific, feel free to join me in my personal writing Discord [Midway](https://discord.gg/jsQw96p), or friend me on Discord at LeoOtherland#7066 if you would rather chat one on one.
> 
> On Facebook I can be located on my [author page](https://www.facebook.com/LeoOtherland/) for all things original fiction, or in the [AO3 Armada group](https://www.facebook.com/groups/601270063618951) for all things fan fiction.
> 
> On [Twitter](https://twitter.com/RoseOfOtherLand) or [Tumbler](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/leootherlands) I primarily run with the fan fiction crowd and I seldom post and/or tweet anything, but if you want to drop me a line, I am always up for a chat.


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